1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to accessories for mowers and, more specifically without limitation, to accessories for walk-behind or riding mowers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Besides trimming grass to a uniform height, proper mowing requires prevention or removal of grass clippings from various areas for obvious esthetic reasons, such as from sidewalks, streets, driveways, and landscaping. For example, as a lawn is being mowed, grass clippings are typically thrown sideways through an opening in the side of the deck of the mower. As the mower moves alongside a landscaped area, such as an area covered with red lava stone, white rock or the like, the grass clippings being discharged through the deck opening are thrown onto the landscaped area, which can be very unsightly if not promptly removed.
Some mowers have a mulch plate that can be installed on the mower to block the discharge opening so the grass clippings are driven downwardly into the underlying turf to thereby avoid sidewise discharging of the grass clippings. This is not necessarily a desirable solution because mulched grass debris accumulates on the ground around the roots of the grass. Such accumulation commonly creates an excellent media for harboring and propagating various types of mold which may be harmful to otherwise healthy grass.
Of course, some mulch plates can be manually installed when mowing around a landscaped area and then removed when such mowing has been completed. This may not be a practical solution for at least two reasons. First, the inventors are unaware of any prior mowers having a mulch plate that can be quickly, easily and reliably installed in a minimum amount of time. Second, efficient use of time is absolutely essential for commercial lawn mowing services. Specifically, time utilized to intermittently install and remove a mulch plate for mowing along the landscaped areas can be detrimental to expeditious utilization of a workman's time while operating a mower.
This is particularly true for a workman operating a riding mower. At each landscaped area, the workman must climb off the riding mower to install the mulch plate over the deck opening, climb back on the riding mower to mow along the landscaped area, climb back off the riding mower to remove the mulch plate, and then climb back on the riding mower to continue mowing until the next landscaped area is reached whereat the same climb off, climb on, climb off again, climb on again procedure must be repeated. A considerable amount of valuable time is unproductively wasted just installing and removing the mulch plate.
Some prior art riding mowers have mulch plates which can be remotely activated and deactivated by the workman while remaining seated on the riding mower. Unfortunately, however, most if not all of such remotely-controlled mulch plates are designed in such a manner that they invite damage from collisions with various obstacles, such as tree trucks or decorative boulders, for example, due to their extension beyond the protective confines of the riding mower, both while the mulch plate is activated and is deactivated.
What is needed is an accessory for intermittently blocking the discharge opening of a riding mower that can be easily and quickly manually installed and removed in a manner which substantially reduces the amount of time needed to perform the install/remove procedure for the accessory and in manner that minimizes or eliminates potential damage to the accessory which might other wise result from collisions with various obstacles.